Elum questions.

[Xx_Abe_xX]

Elum's origin has always been a mystery to me, so any and all responses will be appreciated.

1)Where'd Elum go after Abe's Oddysee?
2)Why is his food preference honey?
3)If Elum is(as it says in Oddworld Abe's Oddysee) Abe's pet... just, how? I mean, if Abe was raised in Rupturefarms, how'd he meet Elum?
4)Why is he afraid of bees, but not Sligs, Slogs, anything else?

As said previously, any and all answers are appreciated...

[AlexFili]

Elum was originally planned to be Abe's companion. They would have started out in Nature and been captured by the factory. However due to several plot changes, he was made into a side-character.

The Elum story is quite strange, because he takes up a lot of processing power. This is why you only see him in very linear areas.

Alf jokingly said that Elum was retired and is hanging out around Mudos. In Vykker's Labs in MO you can see some Elum carcasses on an operating table, so you can choose to believe what happened

The bees and honey thing was to replace another way that Elum used to be trapped. So it might not necessarily make sense... but it did make Elum more likable.

Interaction in this game mainly consists of Abe interacting with everything else. You'll find there isn't a lot of Slig-Mud / Mud-Scrab interaction in this game.

[Nate]

1)Where'd Elum go after Abe's Oddysee?
In-universe? Anywhere. There's not just one Elum, after all. They're a species.
Out-universe? OWI couldn't fit Elum in to AE for memory programmatical reasons. He wouldn't have suited MO as he/they served Abe and MO was (theoretically, at least) Munch's game.

2)Why is his food preference honey?
Because it's sweet and yummy? Because there seems to be bugger all else to eat in Paramonia or Scrabania? Do we need a reason?

3)If Elum is(as it says in Oddworld Abe's Oddysee) Abe's pet... just, how? I mean, if Abe was raised in Rupturefarms, how'd he meet Elum?
Pretty much what AlexFili said. Also, regard the term 'pet' loosely; he serves Abe and helps him out, but he's not a pet in the way of a cat or a dog that someone raises from birth for companionship.

4)Why is he afraid of bees, but not Sligs, Slogs, anything else?
He's not afraid of bees; he quite happily sits under a hive and eats dripping honey. What he doesn't like is being stung; that makes him groan and try to shake them off.

[Andrelvis]

The bees and honey thing was to replace another way that Elum used to be trapped.

What way was that?

[Wil]

The Elum Trap (below) presumably just held Elum in place with glowing blue rings of energy. The honey method of trapping Elum, and the bee technique for releasing him, is much more imaginative and fun in my opinion.



Elum was planned for Munch’s Oddysee, but didn’t make the final cut. He wouldn’t have made any sense in Stranger’s Wrath because Stranger is capable of fast speeds and long jumps by himself.

[Bullet Magnet]

I still think other species in SW should have used elums, at least.

[Nate]

That's what Tiny was for.

[Bullet Magnet]

That makes me wish that in the real world tiny men would actually ride around town on larger, dumber men.

[Nate]

Too... many... jokes...

*brain explodes*

[Xavier]

I still think other species in SW should have used elums, at least.

I have to agree that outlaws on Elums would have been pretty cool

[Wil]

I can’t imagine Outlaws treating their Elums particularly well. But I suppose that gives the Elums plenty of chance to make cute noises.

[Xx_Abe_xX]

I just think that we should've been able to see more of Elum. I understand why he wasn't in AE or MO, but I think Elum would've been a pretty kickass addition to SW. Imagine like, being able to upgrade him, give him armor and improve his attacks and stuff. It would be awesome!

[Bullet Magnet]

I think the boat may have filled in that little niche.

[Xx_Abe_xX]

Stranger's Wrath in general was an amazing game, but something about it struck me as, well, annoying. The fact that buying items from the shop became useless after you got captured by the Outlaws. The first time through I was so mad, because at least 2 hours of my play time was spent hunting for moolah, just to find out that I wasted my time. But, back to Elum, I understand the thing about the bees seeming better than the Elum trap, and I agree completely. BUT! In Abe's Oddysee's game manual, if you look at Elum's short bio, the first words are "Abe's pet". That spawned a dozen questions once I played the game for the millionth time through. Because I got the game when I was like 8 years old, so when I first played it through, I never really delved into the mysteries of Oddworld, because I only thought, "Cool! A game with blood and fantasy violence!" so yeah, I disregarded Oddworld's mysteries until I was one day searching through my clostet and found it by accident, and sat down and played it. So yeah...

[Nate]

Manuals are generally written by the publisher, not the developer. They tend to be dumbed down and should probably not be taken as canon.

[AlexFili]

Some Konami game guides in the late 80s were chock full of in-jokes and lame dialogue from the developers. Thankfully nowadays the instruction books are only like 5 pages long and just fill you in on the basics. Thank odd for tutorials!

[Vexus]

Whoa! Never heard of the Elum trap. Are there any other Beta screenshots?

[joshkrz]

Whoa! Never heard of the Elum trap. Are there any other Beta screenshots?

yerh i saw it once while searching for screenshots but i thought it was like some japaneese version where sligs had multi-coloured shiney spikey hair.


this is proberbly why you pull a leaver to get the bees angry and attack elum...